It’s a great relief that the provincial government has told municipalities that it has no plans to help them collect unpaid parking tickets. It’s bad enough that Victoria allows ICBC to collect transit fines and a host of other debts by withholding drivers licences. That’s an abuse of power.

And it’s not like the province doesn’t already help municipalities collecting the fines; Victoria has for some time provided them with the names and addresses of vehicle owners so that municipal governments can go after scofflaws on their own. In particular, that information allows them to tow vehicles if it is discovered that their owners have outstanding parking tickets. They get the serious, chronic offenders.

But the amount of the outstanding fines reported Monday, in particular in Vancouver, speaks to another issue: some municipalities have lost the moral authority, and therefore public support for parking regulations, because the meters are clearly being used as a cash grab, not to encourage short-term parking, their original purpose.

Under anti-car Vision Vancouver, which hugely expanded the number of meters, hiked rates to among the highest in North America and put them in effect seven days a week until 10 p.m. shows they just want revenue. How else does Vancouver have $5.4 million in outstanding fines — nearly 12 times the $460,000 owed Surrey, the No. 2 city for unpaid fines?

People should pay their tickets. But it’s hard to feel much sympathy for cities when they are ripping off drivers.

Editorials are unsigned opinion pieces that represent the views of The Province editorial board, a group of senior editors.

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